Democratic socialists can’t decide whether they’re radicals.

“If today you and I were to introduce the idea of a building that lends out books for free, we would be slandered in the same way that so many new ideas are slandered today,” New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a recent interview with Jon Stewart. “And yet that’s the library. And the same thing with the fire department. And the same thing with public schools.”

While Mamdani insists democratic socialism is misunderstood, the Democratic Socialists of America are remarkably candid about their ambitions. The group’s platform says some of its goals “will require building a new society from the ground up.” Among them: abolishing the Senate, abolishing the Electoral College, and replacing the president and Supreme Court with "an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress."

Mamdani presents democratic socialism as little more than libraries, public schools and fire departments. The Democratic Socialists of America describe something far more sweeping. Recasting those ambitions as familiar public services is an effort to launder radical ideas into the mainstream.

DSA's moderate pitch hides democratic socialists' radical platform

The Democratic Socialists of America’s platform begins with policies that fit comfortably within Mamdani’s........

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